Finance and Divorce Update, December 2016 – Family Law Week

‘Sue Brookes, Senior Associate for Mills & Reeve LLP analyses the news and case law relating to financial remedies and divorce during November 2016.’

Full story

Family Law Week, 3rd December 2016

Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk

Family faces ‘decade of torture’ if bid to withdraw life support from vegetative Gulf War hero fails – Daily Telegraph

Posted November 28th, 2016 in consent, Court of Protection, medical treatment, news by tracey

‘The family of a Gulf War veteran left in a coma after a road accident say they face a decade of “torture” if their legal bid to remove his life support fails. Lindsey Briggs is campaigning for doctors to allow her husband Paul to “pass away with dignity”, 17 months after he collided head-on with a car using the wrong lane while riding his motorbike.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 27th November 2016

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Court of Protection Update (Autumn 2016): Part 2 – Family Law Week

Posted November 3rd, 2016 in costs, Court of Protection, litigants in person, news, reporting restrictions by tracey

‘Sally Bradley and Julia Townend, barristers of 4 Paper Buildings, conclude their review of Court of Protection developments by considering recent judgments concerning reporting restriction orders; costs and civil restraint; and participation in proceedings.’

Full story

Family Law Week, 2nd November 2016

Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk

Court of Protection extends pilot testing increased access for public and media – Courts and Tribunals Judiciary

‘A pilot scheme which has allowed the public and media to gain greater access to Court of Protection hearings is to continue for a further 12 months.’

Full press release

Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, 28th July 2016

Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk

Agoraphobic can be sedated and taken from home to undergo eye surgery, judge rules – Daily Telegraph

‘An agoraphobic woman can be sedated and taken from the home she has hardly left for many years so doctors can perform an eye operation, a judge has ruled.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 7th July 2016

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Retired company director fined and reprimanded for destroying his own mother’s grave – Daily Telegraph

‘A retired company director has paid £4,500 in costs after being reprimanded by a judge for vandalising his own mother’s gravestone with a hammer.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 26th June 2016

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Judge: no resuscitation for churchgoer who would ‘accept death as God’s will’ – Daily Telegraph

Posted June 24th, 2016 in consent, Court of Protection, elderly, families, medical treatment, news by tracey

‘A judge overruled the daughter of a devout Christian who insists her dying father would want to be resuscitated – remarking that he would surely “accept death as God’s will”.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 23rd June 2016

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Staffordshire County Council v K and others – WLR Daily

Staffordshire County Council v K and others [2016] EWCOP 27

‘An incapacitated adult (“K”), who had been severely injured in a road traffic accident, was awarded substantial damages in court proceedings which were used by his property and affairs deputy, a private trust corporation, to provide a specially adapted residence and to fund the regime of care and support provided by private sector providers. The local authority, having been informed of the arrangements for K’s care and the arrangements having been registered with the Care Quality Commission, applied to the Court of Protection for a welfare order under section 16 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The parties accepted that the arrangements constituted a deprivation of liberty satisfying two of three components of a deprivation of liberty within article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but the Secretary of State contended that the third component, namely the attribution of responsibility to the state, did not apply to the privately funded and arranged care regime (and to others in an equivalent position), so that the care regime could lawfully be put in place without a welfare order being made under the Act.’

WLR Daily, 25th May 2016

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Court of Protection orders continued reporting restrictions after death – UK Human Rights Blog

‘The Court of Protection has just ruled that where a court has restricted the publication of information during proceedings that were in existence during a person’s lifetime, it has not only the right but the duty to consider, when requested to do so, whether that information should continue to be protected following the person’s death.’

Full story

UK Human Rights Blog, 27th April 2016

Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com

Woman who died after ‘losing sparkle’ cannot be named, court rules – The Guardian

‘The court of protection has declined to name a 50-year-old woman who died after refusing life-saving kidney treatment because she said life had lost its “sparkle”.’

Full story

The Guardian, 25th April 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Court of Protection plans to shift more costs onto deputies – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted March 30th, 2016 in consultations, costs, Court of Protection, families, news by sally

‘The Court of Protection is considering giving judges more power to make family members cover the legal costs in disputes over an incapacitated person’s property, affairs or care.’

Full story

Law Society’s Gazette, 30th March 2016

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Mental Capacity Law Newsletter – 39 Essex Chambers

Mental Capacity Law Newsletter (PDF)

39 Essex Chambers, March 2016

Source: www.39essex.com

Judge challenges government over legal representation for vulnerable people – The Guardian

‘A senior judge has challenged the government to provide legal representation for vulnerable people as a backlog of safeguarding cases that cannot be tried builds up in the court of protection.’

Full story

The Guardian, 10th March 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Abortion, mental incapacity and prior intentions: Court of Protection Clarifies the law – UK Human Rights Law

Posted March 4th, 2016 in abortion, consent, Court of Protection, domestic violence, news by tracey

‘An NHS Trust v CS (By Her Litigation Friend, the Official Solicitor) ] EWCOP. The Court of Protection does the work of Solomon on a daily basis. Matters of life and death are brought before it, and with them come a mass of conflicting rights, overlapping statutes, and an array of case law from which arguments can be drawn.’

Full story

UK Human Rights Law, 26th February 2016

Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com

Abortion, mental incapacity and prior intentions: Court of Protection Clarifies the law – UK Human Rights Blog

Posted February 26th, 2016 in abortion, consent, Court of Protection, domestic violence, medical treatment, news by tracey

‘An NHS Trust v CS (By Her Litigation Friend, the Official Solicitor) ] EWCOP. The Court of Protection does the work of Solomon on a daily basis. Matters of life and death are brought before it, and with them come a mass of conflicting rights, overlapping statutes, and an array of case law from which arguments can be drawn. At the end of it, an individual judge must make a stark decision, which may have the most profound impact on another human being. One of those charged with making such decisions once divided the advocates who appeared before him into those who complicate and those who clarify. There is no surprise as to which he preferred.’

Full story

UK Human Rights Blog, 26th February 2016

Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com

The pints of justice? Could courts cases be heard in pubs? – Daily Telegraph

‘Lord Chief Justice appears to agree with calls to have cases heard in hotels and pubs as one in five courts are closed.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 23rd February 2016

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Judge orders caesarean if needed for mentally ill mother-to-be – The Guardian

Posted February 11th, 2016 in birth, Court of Protection, health, medical treatment, mental health, news by sally

‘A specialist judge has given doctors permission to perform a caesarean section to deliver the baby of a 21-year-old woman detained under mental health legislation.’

Full story

The Guardian, 11th February 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

PJV v Director of Adult Social Care Newcastle City Council and another – WLR Daily

PJV v Director of Adult Social Care Newcastle City Council and another: [2015] EWCOP 87; [2015] WLR (D) 560

‘There was no need for an application to the Court of Protection to finalise an award to an incapacitated person that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority decided should be held on trust, since a deputy appointed by the Court of Protection could be authorised to negotiate and finalise the terms of such an award.’

WLR Daily, 18th December 2016

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Court of Protection prepares to open up – Courts and Tribunals Judiciary

‘A pilot scheme begins today which will see the public and media gain access to Court of Protection hearings across England and Wales for the first time.’

Full press release

Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, 29th January 2016

Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk

We must choose our words carefully when covering complex legal cases – The Guardian

Posted January 19th, 2016 in Court of Protection, media, medical treatment, mental health, news by sally

‘A recent case that caught the public’s attention shows how writers’ choice of words can, however unintentionally, create a misleading impression.’

Full story

The Guardian, 18th January 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk